Second Chances: Part 3 "Shades of The Past"
by Trish1
Summary: A long ago life shared with another comes back to haunt Lady Elizabeth while the Grays must stand by and watch.


Second Chances: Part 3: "Shades of the Past"  
Written By Trish  
Disclaimer: The following is a work of fanfiction based on the characters and placed from the 1992 television series Covington Cross. No copyright infringement is intended and no profit has been made.   
  
Sir Robert Leland cradled his wife, Elizabeth, in his arms as he layed her softly on the ground. Sir Thomas stood nearby watching as if in a dream. How could this be happening. Elizabeth's husband had been killed in battle over a decade and a half ago. At least everyone assumed he had. Thomas numbly searched his brain for the long forgotten details. It had been in the north country. There had been trouble with marauders making raids over the border from Scotland. The king had called forth an army to squelch the rebellion, and knights from around the county had been called upon to do their duty to the king, including himself, Sir Robert, and John Mullens. Thomas thought of the latter with disgust. There had been heavy fighting with casualties on both sides, one of which had supposedly been Elizabeth's husband. He had been ambushed by a band of Scots. He had been run through several times and his body badly burned as they set fire to the grove where he lay. When the army finally reached him, all that remained to identify him was his charred armor and his shield which bore his colors.   
  
Being the king's highest ranking knight in the county, Sir Thomas was charged with delivering the dreaded news to Robert's wife, Elizabeth. She had been but twenty-five years old, with two small children to care for. He had brought Anne with him that day, feeling a lady's presence might be more comforting. Thomas remembered her eyes when he told her how Robert had died. She had been so brave upon hearing the news, but her eyes gave her away. Her world had fallen apart. Anne had accompanied Elizabeth back to her chambers that day, and had told him later how she had dissolved into tears clinging to her children, Adam and Lenore. She had truly loved Robert Leland. Her life with him had been as happy with him as Thomas's had been with Anne.   
  
Elizabeth had been married once before she accepted Robert's hand, when she was but seventeen. That marriage had been more of a friendship. She and her first husband were too inexperienced and naive for anything more. If given more time perhaps they could have built a solid life together, but the plague had seen to that, taking her young husband from her after only eight months of marriage.   
  
Two years following that her parents joyfully hosted her wedding party to the dashing Robert Leland. Everyone in the county had been invited. By that time, Armus and William were old enough to accompany their parents to the event. It was a happy and wonderful occasion with the bride and groom very much in love. Robert had been knighted the following year, and had come under Thomas's command. He saw how the man truly adored his young wife, and in a short time their children. It was heart wrenching to have to stand at his friend's memorial, and watch beautiful Elizabeth bravely fight back the tears the tore at her heart.   
  
Elizabeth was not the same woman she had been before her husband's death. She could not afford to be. She had to think of her children. Her only link to Robert. She became comsumed with building her own fortunes and ensuring their future. When she was thirty she had entered into a marriage of convenience, or more accurately of commerce, with Harry Adderly. A beastly man nearly twenty years her senior, who loved only money, and whom Thomas suspected had been violent toward her. He had taken her and the children with him to his castle near London. Very little was heard from her during those years, and she seldom spoke of them. Elizabeth's time with Adderly had lasted half a decade, ending upon his mysterious death. Most people agreed that he was probably murdered by someone he had cheated in a business deal. Finally she returned to Leland's castle in Kent, a much wiser and more self assured woman. It was a telling admission of her true feelings when she legally resumed the use of Robert's last name.   
  
Now, years later, her children were successfully running the lands she inherited from Adderly in France. It seemed fitting that they should all have some return on that investment. Lady Elizabeth had built a fortune, a name, and reputation for being a tough business woman. She was no longer that naive young girl. She could take care of herself. She had also fallen in love again. She never dreamed she would feel this way about anyone every again. However, when Thomas had come back into her life, it was like she was reawakening to everything fresh, and pure, and new.   
  
He too was awakening from many years of self imposed darkness. The death of his beloved Anne was a loss from which he would never truly recover. However, with Elizabeth in his life he was given a second chance for happiness, one which he was determined not to let slip away. That was, if he had the choice. Thomas watched as Leland gently tried to revive Elizabeth from her faint. Robert stroked her hair and face, and held her while she struggled to conciousness. Thomas wanted to rush at the man, pull him off of the woman he loved, and take her far away where no one could ever find them. Then he realized, Sir Robert Leland was still legally Elizabeth's husband, and he had no legal or even moral right ever to see her again. His heart shuttered in his chest. Never see her again. He could not bare it. He wanted to yell, to rant, to do anything but just stand there and watch the reunion, but he could not.   
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Lady Elizabeth slowly came to herself, but her mind still struggled to understand what had happened. There in front of her was Robert, the husband she had once loved dearly. The man she had thought dead for fifteen years. Why had he not returned to her, and where had he been? She lay on the ground his arms around her, his voice whispering in her ear. Familiar memories came flooding back into her brain as she listened to the sound of his soft tone. However, the feelings she had once had for him did not return. She saw Thomas standing motionless nearby, and looked at him with confused eyes. The only thing in the world she wanted was for Thomas to reach for her, and take her far away. She loved him now, and wanted only to be with him. Her time with Robert had been beautiful and wonderful. She had loved him dearly years ago, but with time those feelings had passed to fond images of memory. Her feelings for Thomas Gray were strong and alive, and she wanted his arms around her. It was then she realized, that she was still Robert's wife, and he held all claims to her. Robert Leland was as full of life as anyone standing around her, and that meant one thing, she and Thomas could never be together now.  
  
"Rob...Robert?" Elizabeth asked turning back to her husband in disbelief.  
  
"It's me, Dove." He smiled using his old familiar nickname for her, as if nothing had changed.  
  
"But, I don't understand. They said you were dead." Elizabeth stammered.  
  
Before Sir Robert could answer Thomas interjected, his voice full of poison for the man now returned from the dead. "Yes, Leland. Where have you been for fifteen years." He thought of the pain Elizabeth had gone through as a result of his death and had nothing but contempt for him, realizing he had left her alone.   
  
Lady Elizabeth struggled to sit up, shaking free of Sir Robert's embrace. She sat beside him, her face questioning and unsure. He had left her, left their children, and for what...to be a bandit, a common criminal. He had been a wealthy man. He had possessed everything anyone could want, why would he have chosen this. "Yes, where have you been?" She demanded thinking of the greif she had known in his absence.   
  
"In exile in Ireland, my dearest." Leland cooly informed his wife, ignoring Sir Thomas. "But let us not speak of it now. I tell you all about it once we are...home." Sir Robert said reaching for Elizabeth who crumbled away from his touch.   
  
Confusion and silence spilled over onto everyone. Armus, Richard, Eleanor, and Cedric watched the scene unfolding their hearts breaking for their father, and for Lady Elizabeth. They could see the pain on the two lovers' faces. They understood what all this meant. If only there was something they could do.   
  
Suddenly Leland's mind flashed with recognition as he saw the look that passed between Elizabeth and, his old friend Thomas. He understood the nature of their relationship and the jealousy ate at his soul. They were obviously in love with each other. He wanted to tell them all why he had disappeared leaving his wife and two young children behind. It had not been his choice, he had left to save them. He wanted to scream out the name of the reason he had been forced to leave England, but now was not the time or the place.   
  
Fifteen years had hardened Robert. He had lived every waking moment longing for Elizabeth. He spent nights dreaming of her arms around him. So many times he wanted to run back to her, but he knew for her sake he could not. Now he was finally with her again, holding her in his arms, and all she could think of was another man. He wanted to hurt Thomas Gray, he wanted Elizabeth to love him again.   
  
"Well, Gray." He spat. "Thank you for taking such good care of her while I was away, but I'll take it from here." He laughed.   
  
Elizabeth looked at Thomas, her eyes pleading for him to do something. He read the pain on her face, and understood that she wanted to be with him, but there was nothing either of them could do. He watched helplessly as Sir Robert picked Elizabeth softly up in his arms. He carried her over to where his horse stood waiting. Placing her delicately across the sadle, he climbed up behind her.   
  
"I'd love to stay and chat, but we have a lot of catching up to do." Robert said to the Grays as he looked at Elizabeth.   
  
"Oh, gentlemen." He motioned to his cohorts. "I thank you for your help in getting me back into the country. You can let them go. I think they've lost enough for today." He said staring directly at Sir Thomas. He threw one of them a bag of what sounded like coins, probably gold. The other men grumbled at losing their rich catch, but climbed aboard their horses and disappeared down the lane, in search of other victims.  
  
Sir Robert began to pull his horse away, but looked back for a moment. "Well be sure to call when I'm sufficiently settle in." He yelled.   
  
Elizabeth looked around his shoulder. She had never seen this side of him and it frightened her. She saw Thomas, his eyes smoldering with rage. Her voice seemed to her too little to be heard as she whispered his name, but he heard her. He also helplessly watched her ride off down the lane with her husband.  
  
Richard, Armus, Eleanor, and Cedric encircled their father. Their stares, like his, following Lady Elizabeth. "Shall we go after him, Father?" Richard questioned, at the ready. His brothers and sister echoing his anger and eagerness.   
  
Thomas was not used to having so few paths of recourse and could barely think of what to do. He turned to his son, his eyes silently begging for help. "And do what?" He asked in shock. "He's...her husband."   
  
"Come." He said, turning back to the carriage. "I need to be home. I need to think of what to do."   
  
The children ran to mount their horses. They would do whatever their father asked of them. Once back at Covington Cross they were sure to think of a plan. They had to, for Lady Elizabeth's sake. As the coach lurched forward Thomas sat down hard, exhausted. He had to get her back. He had to think of something, but for this moment, he could not recover from the shock. He buried his head in his palms. "Elizabeth." He whispered.   
  
  
  



End file.
